Gilbert Arenas and Laura Govan spent more than a decade together, raised four children, and got engaged. But they never married. Their eventual split brought a series of legal battles involving child support, custody, and financial disagreements. One detail from their engagement still stands out, and Arenas has openly admitted to it.
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The two met in 2001, when Arenas was starting his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors and Govan worked in the Sacramento Kings’ public relations department. They started dating in 2002 and had four children: Izela, Alijah, Hamiley and Aloni. In 2008, Arenas proposed with a massive diamond ring.
“I paid 395, I think… is it 395 or 495,” Arenas said during an April 2024 interview with VladTV, later calling it a “400,000 diamond.”
The proposal came around her birthday, and eight days later the couple got into a fight and broke up.
“When we broke up, I’m like, ‘That was a f—–g waste of money,”‘ Arenas recalled during a past appearance on VladTV. “I want my ring back. So I was like, ‘How do I get my ring back? F–k it, I just got to get her back.’ But when she comes back, I’ma have a fake one, and I can switch it at any time.”
Arenas had a replica made for about $10,000, which he called “a good fake diamond.” Then he set out to win Govan back. “Had the fake one created, then started, ‘Hey, missed you, come on back and do all that stuff,’” he said.
It worked. About four or five months later, the two got back together. But Arenas didn’t make the switch right away. “I never switched it. I just knew that I can switch it at any time,” he said. “And then years later, I eventually switched it.” He put the real ring in a safety deposit box, and Govan wore the fake without noticing.
Govan didn’t learn the truth about the ring immediately. According to Arenas, things were calm between the two at first, but that changed after he won custody of the kids. He claims one of Govan’s friends then pushed her to go after full custody, and their dispute quickly became public.
That is when Arenas decided to have some fun. Calling himself a troll, he posted a photo of himself with the original ring online. He believes Govan saw it, had her own ring checked, and realized she had been wearing a fake all along.
She eventually had it appraised. The result revealed a significant difference between the ring’s supposed value and what it was actually worth.
The story also ties into a legal dispute between the former couple. In 2015, Govan sued Gilbert Arenas, alleging that he had taken her engagement ring without permission and sold it. Her lawsuit placed the ring’s value at approximately $1 million, considerably higher than the nearly $400,000 figure Arenas cited in his VladTV interview.
At the time, Arenas told the judge he did take the ring back but denied selling it.
The ring wasn’t their only dispute. Arenas has said he started out paying $20,000 a month in child support and eventually went as high as $44,000 once school costs were included. In late 2016, after his NBA income dried up, he asked the court to lower it. A Los Angeles Family Court judge cut his payments to $7,198 a month, though the judge also found that neither he nor Govan had fully disclosed what they earned.
Govan also spoke about their strained relationship during a 2024 interview with Carlos King. She suggested that their disagreements had continued long after their split.
“We were never married… our relationship today is the same as it was 12 years ago. It’s actually gotten worse,” she said.
While his relationship with Govan never resulted in marriage, Arenas eventually found himself preparing for another engagement. The three-time NBA All-Star began dating French model and social media personality Melli Monaco. Arenas took things a step further in July 2024 when he proposed to Monaco in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower providing the backdrop.
He later shared the moment on Instagram, joking about how nervous he was and how he had practically answered his own proposal question while waiting for her response. Monaco eventually said yes, and the two got married in January 2025. Arenas celebrated the occasion by sharing wedding pictures and announcing that Monaco was officially Mrs. Arenas.